Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch has his own view on jazz music. With his group Ronin, among others, he searches for ritual elements in jazz and modern classical. This produces a strong rhythmic and repetitive sound with elements from minimal, aptly described as 'Zen funk'. Mobile is Bärtsch's acoustic group that has existed since 1997 and is now debuting on . Continuum sounds both robust
… and delicate. With an instrumentation of piano, bass clarinet and two percussionists, an exciting and sometimes exotic basis is created and then repeated endlessly. In this way, the songs, with an average length of nine minutes, take on a life of their own and gradually rise again and again. It is a proven formula that has already been explored by minimal composers such as and . But keeping the music within jazz traditions has never sounded so exciting. (MR)more
